Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A Eurasian bird (Corvus monedula) related to and resembling the crows, having black plumage with a gray nape and underparts.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The common daw of Europe, Corvus monedula, an oscine passerine bird of the family Corvidæ. It is one of the smallest of crows, being but 13 inches long. It is of a black color, with a blue or metallic reflection. Jackdaws in flocks frequent church steeples, deserted chimneys, old towers, and ruins. where they build their nests. They may readily be tamed and taught to imitate the sounds of words. They are common throughout Europe.
- n. The boat-tailed grackle, Quiscalus major, a large long-tailed blackbird of the family Agelæidæ. Coues.
Wiktionary
- n. A European bird of the Crow family (Corvus monedula), often nesting in church towers and ruins; a daw.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. See daw, n.
WordNet 3.0
- n. common black-and-grey Eurasian bird noted for thievery
Examples
“Are you so weak in natural history or have you forgotten that the jackdaw is a most respectable family bird!”
“Are you so weak in natural history, or have you forgotten that the jackdaw is a most respectable family bird?”
“It proved to be a kind of jackdaw, of huge stature, which scuttled out of the opening, and disappeared into the summit of Will Tree.”
“The jackdaw is a big-brained, extremely alert, very educable, loquacious bird.] [Illustration: _From Ingersoll's "The Wit of the Wild.”
The Outline of Science, Vol. 1 (of 4) A Plain Story Simply Told
“A few weeks ago at the Tate Modern, my notes say “body parts on a baking tray” and “jackdaw and hooded crow skewered by arrows”.”
15 Ways Modern Art Galleries Can Inspire Writers - by Joanna Penn | The Creative Penn
“Occasionally a jackdaw would rise up briefly to sit on a sheep's back, but the most persistent of these interactions involved a magpie.”
“These are the crows corvidae, such as the raven, carrion crow, rook, and jackdaw.”
“I could tell a beech from a birch, a jackdaw from a jay, cow parsley from catkins.”
“Spur of the Moment puts on stage the jackdaw chatter, the fluffy vulnerability and the vulture behaviour of pre-teen chicks.”
“A jackdaw performs a rollicking tightrope walk along the ridge tiles opposite.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘jackdaw’.
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common UA vocab. in US
Interesting, there is a traditional vocabulary of an Ukrainian, that differs from vocabulary of average American. It would be nice to explore it.
jackdaw, incongruous, cassock, vivid, magpie, humdrum, amongst, wonder, wandering, wheedling, wheedle, osseous and 368 more...
brtom "We are considerably out of pocket over this bally pressman johnny, this jackdaw of Rheims, who has not even been to a university."
Joyce, Ulysses, 15 Feb 5, 2007